Engaging your mobile and social audience

By Marc Munier

• Social media and mobile apps will account for half of all online sales by 2015 (Gartner).

This shows that a brand’s audience is increasingly on the move. So adapting your campaigns to operate on multiple platforms is crucial.

But, how do we go about adapting to mobile devices?

Keep it short

Design emails as postcards rather than letters. Thanks to the growth of social media, we’re now used to ‘snippets’ of information rather than long streams of content. Email remains dominant, but needs to adapt to this short, sharp method of consuming information that we’re now used to.

A call for action

When it comes to campaign messaging, the call to action within an email template is more important than making sure the company name or logo is in the right place. There may be a picture-postcard lighting up the inbox, but if you’re not giving a clear action, the message is lost.

When and where also matters

Engaging your audience through mobile platforms at the right time is really important and difficult to get right. Surprisingly, 60 per cent of users check their email in the bath, where they’re likely to have more time to browse in depth content.

Try using ‘progressive disclosure’. This gives users the option to expand on content through the design of the email. It’s good for developing user experience and it’s a good opportunity to catch people at the right time on their terms (check out www.bitly.com/design4mobile some great advice on designing for mobile).

What about SMS?

SMS has a bad reputation and is often underused. It’s seen as intrusive and old fashioned for marketing today. However no communication channel should be overlooked. At Pure360 we use a bitly link within an SMS that when clicked on, quickly links back to the relevant webpage. This is ultra simple, useable and instantly trackable.

Now you’ve got your direct email campaigns working efficiently, it’s vital you look at other digital channels. Social media continues to grow and its role needs to be incorporated into other direct marketing. But how do we use SOMAIL (social and email) to make campaigns more powerful? Here are a few tips.

Focus on social interactions. Drive email interactions through social – one isn’t necessarily better than the other. So, make it a postcard, make a simple call to action and use an incentive. Make this a part of the campaign itself. Very few people will share the content if it’s just an add-on.

Create personalised, relevant campaigns. People respond badly to not having a reason to do something. If you want to drive people to sign up, give them a reason to join a page, ‘like’ you or follow you. It’s more powerful than just asking them without benefit.

So use an incentive to get consumers to share parts of email via Twitter and Facebook, whether it’s entry into a competition or the chance of winning a prize. They’re much more likely to share parts of content than the whole email (remember the snippets).

Also, remember groups for LinkedIn – like SMS, it’s often very underrated, but valuable and relevant and can be linked through from directly from emails.

Don’t forget the data

Marketing has never been more targeted, personalised and relevant to the right audience. We can capture new kinds of usable personal data that we couldn’t before. We now own vital information on how consumers like to shop, where they like to shop, what people like, who they like, who they follow and who follows them.

Lastly, track it. That way you can easily measure the impact of your campaign and identify which element is most successful, making it the perfect starting point for developing your next campaign.

About the author

Marc Munier has worked his way up through the company since he started at Pure360 in 2006 as the second member of the sales team. He became Commercial Director in 2009 and is responsible for the overall sales and marketing operation at Pure360. This includes managing 3 business managers, a marketing manager and a customer accounts manager, along with their teams. Marc is also involved in the recruitment, training and development of these teams at Pure360. He is responsible of setting budgets and KPI’s to ensure performance and is also is also a regular speaker on all things digital. Marc’s previous roles at Pure360 have included Interim Managing Director, Sales and Account Director, Major Accounts Sales Manager, Major Accounts Account Manager and SME Account Manager. Before Pure360 Marc studied Business Studies and Law at the University of Brighton.

About Pure360

Pure360 is a results driven direct digital marketing provider, improving customer ROI via email and SMS marketing campaigns. Pure360 customers are not tied into any contract, but buy services based on their needs, and include leading brands such as Rightmove, Virgin and innocent drinks. A member of the DMA, Pure360 is privately owned, having been established in 2001.Working internationally, with 90 people at its Brighton HQ, Pure360 is growing fast and was recently given the ‘one to watch’ company accolade following its impressive growth (by investment bank GP Bullhound). For more information go to www.pure360.com